Parliamentarian – July 2019

JULY 2019 l PARlIAMENTARIAN 77

Nandigram agitations, she should
have shown sagacity by aggressively
courting investments in automobiles,
engineering, food processing,
pharmaceuticals and chemicals, and
like Narendra Modi as Gujarat chief
minister, should have turned to
China for big ticket investments.”
Instead of single-mindedly
pursuing the investments route to
reviving industry in Bengal, which
had been laid to waste by the Left,
the TMC outdid the Marxists in
political patronage. There was no
real urgency on her part to draw up
a blueprint, for that could have at
least conveyed to the people that she
meant business.
Her 2011 election manifesto was
quickly abandoned and she launched
into theatrics, inanities and opening
the floodgates of corruption and

criminalisation of the polity self-

glorification, free allowance to some

of her closest aides to resort to loot,

involving members of her extended

family to be part of the skimming

and appeasement of the Muslim

minority to an extent that put the

CPI(M) to shame.

In between her less than infantile

statements – like Rabindranath

Tagore and Shakespeare having

taken walks together by the Thames

• bought her loads of ridicule.
  One of the chief public complaints
  against her was her patronage to
  thugs and criminals who
  masqueraded as politicians. The
  result of this “allowance” was the
  rise of a “syndicate” a criminal-
  politician nexus that turned
  parasitic. This syndicate controlled
  the real estate and construction

markets, forcing the people to buy

from them rather than from

legitimate sellers. The syndicate’s

grip and writ ran not just in Kolkata

but across West Bengal. No wonder

now that Mamata is witnessing a

rapid erosion of her political ground

that she has begun to openly voice

her “anger” against her party

colleagues’ practice of accumulating

“cut money” (some prefer the

abbreviation, CM).

Indeed, Mamata’s second term in

office was marked by internecine

battles between various groups

within her party seeking to partake

off the proceeds of extortion.

Blind to extortion

A former senior journalist, who did

not want to be identified, said:

“Mamata knew all along about the

existence and extortions of the

syndicate, but turned a blind eye to

it because it helped swell the party’s

coffers. And now that she is faced

with an electoral challenge, she is

trying to rid herself of the taint. This

may not work as her party faces the

threat of implosion.” No senior TMC

leader was prepared to comment on

the record.

It is not that the TMC did not

work to lay claim to achievements.

The doles and patronage, in the form

of schemes for school girls and

women, the laying of cemented

roads in many villages, where too

party functionaries benefitted from

skimming, and improving municipal

services in Kolkata were amplified

and projected as “great deeds” by the

chief minister.

In development-starved Bengal,

such patronage was more like a drop

in the ocean that helped a miniscule

section of the population.

According to Bhaumik, what

The emBrace of The muslims grew TighTer and

had iTs uninTended consequence: The drifT

among several Bengali hindu communiTies

Towards The Bjp picked up rapid pace